At least one embodiment of the invention is a centrifugal/cyclone separator which separates particles, liquid droplets and or condensing mists (water based and or hydrocarbon based nature) from gases without using a filter element.
Generally, filters or some cyclone/centrifugal separators having a coalescing filter element have at least one drawback. The coalescing filter element is choked quickly due to their small pore size and resulted in high maintenance.
A coalescing filter is used in conjunction with membrane filter to remove particles, liquid droplets and fine mists from gases. However, these filters are choked up quickly due to their small pore size and can only provide very short term service interval ranging from a few days to 2 weeks resulting in very high maintenance and replacement costs. Our separator is expected to operate maintenance-free since it does not make use of any filter element.
European Patent No. EP-0436973A2 discloses a separator of liquids and/or solid from a gas stream. That application discloses a device for the separation of liquids and/or solids from a gas stream, comprising a cylindrical vessel with a virtually vertically set axis, provided with: a top compartment to which the gas stream is supplied; a middle compartment comprising a number of blades shaped helicoidally around the axis; a bottom compartment for the separation of the liquid and/or solids and a coaxial gas discharge pipe projecting upwards from the bottom compartment through the middle and top compartments, around which the helicoidal blades are fixed, in which bottom compartment at least one plate with a circular outer rim is provided perpendicularly to the axis of the vessel and under the gas discharge pipe, at least one diametrical baffle being provided beneath the bottom plate, the overall height of each baffle being at least 1.0 times the internal diameter of the vessel.
However EP0436973A2, does not disclose the following different features of the different claims disclosed herein:                1) a separator is configured to separate at a rate of up to 20 l/h for fluid flow rate or 2000 Nl/h for gas flow rate;        2) a separator assembly comprising a first separator and a second separator wherein the separators are configured to separate particles in a condensing mist of up to 10 microns in size;        3) a process wherein the separator is configured to separate particles of up to 10 microns in size;        4) a separator characterized in that said at least one separator element comprises a first conical fin, and a second conical fin (4) disposed adjacent to said first conical fin (3) wherein said housing has an inner wall (20) and wherein said first conical fin and said second conical fin is spaced from said inner wall of said housing by 0.5 mm to 2 mm.        5) a separator system having two different separators coupled together via a conduit.        
Therefore for each of the above independent reasons, the claimed inventions are patentable in view of EP0436973A2.
For example, cyclone/centrifugal separators are used in high flow rate applications and not low flow rate applications. When this is used in conjunction with a coalescing filter, the filter element is choked up very quickly and requires very high maintenance. Therefore, there is a need for a centrifugal cyclone separator which does not have a coalescing filter element.